Conquest of Spaces
by Xtreme Nightmare
Summary: AU. The third war against Nightmare rages. The GSA faces their past and enemies from within, preparing to destroy what lasted for millennia. Meanwhile Kirby and Joe go hunting for monsters and information on a death thirteen years ago.
1. I 1 Welcome to Pop Star

**I. Introduction**

1. Welcome to Pop Star

_Thousands of years ago the self-proclaimed emperor of the universe, Nightmare, was defeated by the rebel movement calling themselves the "Galaxy Soldier Army". In an epic last battle the heroes of the GSA prevailed against Nightmare's demon beasts and forced the former emperor to flee, leaving him in a severely weakened state._

_Believing Nightmare to be gone forever, the GSA established themselves as the universe's protectors, answering only to the new emperor they appointed. _

_Millennia of relative peace passed with not even a whisper of Nightmare's name, and the general population slowly forgot which event had led to the GSA's formation many years ago. _

_Even the GSA was no longer aware what exactly had happened in their last battle against Nightmare, and only the leadership retained some knowledge of what had transpired. However, their knowledge was not enough to identify the monsters that attacked the outskirts of the empire they had sworn to protect._

_Nightmare, weakened but not dead, had not been idle. Over the years his strength had returned, and with it his ability to create his army anew. He operated from the shadows, never revealing his name or true intentions. _

_When the time for open battle came, the GSA prevailed again, facing heavy losses. Nightmare was forced to return to the shadows again, but this time the universe didn't forget him. _

_Memory of the first war against Nightmare, however, was lost and this time period was eventually referred to as "the Lost Century", but even now, centuries after the second war against Nightmare, the GSA remained alert for any mention of his name._

_When the time came for Nightmare to take action again the GSA responded immediately. _

_People commonly referred to as "monster hunters" were sent to deal with the threat of the demon beast's and became heroes in the eyes of many of the common people. Today they support the army's forces in many battles against Nightmare's servants. _

_Meanwhile another evil lurks in the darkness, sending its agents to do its bidding and waiting for the right moment to strike._

* * *

"Kirby? Kirby where are you?"

That was just typical. The town they were currently in was really not all that big, but of course Kirby had disappeared as soon as Joe had stopped looking at him. Knowing Kirby he would also be in trouble when Joe found him again.

Knuckle Joe, a teenager easily recognized because of his spiky blond hair, was alone in a town full of strangers. He wore blue pants and blue shoes and white glows. He also wore a white headband with some kind of red stone on it. His skin was of light color, whereas his eyes were a dark blue that seemed black from a distance.

He sighed dejectedly because it wasn't much use to go looking for Kirby anyway; he would surely reappear later, but until then Joe had to find out what was going on on his own.

The place he was currently at was called Cappy Town, a pretty small town on the planet of Pop Star in Dream Land.

Dream Land sounded like a pretty nice place, but the people living here had a problem and that was why he and Kirby were here in the first place. Unfortunately, reports weren't quite clear what _exactly_ the problem was, but the word "monster" had been mentioned – more than once.

And if the Special Forces said "monster" you better took it seriously.

"Excuse me?" Joe approached the closest Cappy woman, who wore a green pearl necklace.

She was talking to some other random person, but Joe reasoned his question was far more important.

"Yes?" she replied distractedly, turning slowly to look who had interrupted her conversation.

"I heard there was a problem here. Something about a monster attacking?" Joe questioned and the woman's face instantly lost color.

"I... excuse me. I forgot something important..."

She hurried away, and Joe saw the person she had been talking to hurry in the other direction. Everyone else had mysteriously disappeared from the streets as well, leaving Joe all by himself.

"O...kay."

That had been strange.

* * *

The missing Kirby, a pink alien with red feet and blue eyes, had no idea where Knuckle Joe had gone.

They had been walking on the street and then Joe had been gone, had just disappeared. And he was nowhere to be seen either!

Actually, there was nothing to be seen except for grass and grass and some trees. Did he mention grass already?

Looking around, Kirby had to say that he most certainly was no longer in the village, but somewhere right in the middle of nowhere. Kirby frowned in confusion, wondering when exactly he had left the village. He didn't even remember it.

Deciding that standing around didn't help, he continued into a random direction and soon came across something else than grass and trees.

"A fence?" he questioned, although he realized that it was rather unlikely to receive a response when he was the only person around.

When someone answered against expectations, Kirby whirled around in surprise.

"Yeah, it's to keep the sheep in."

"Sheep?"

"You know? Those animals with wool?"

Kirby only gave the nondescript Cappy he assumed to be the shepherd a blank stare. He was well aware what kind of animals sheep were, but there were no sheep. Kirby turned to look at the fence again to make sure that there really were none, and was left with the same end result. No sheep.

"Yeah, I know. But where are they?" Kirby was quite sure that he didn't just imagine the Cappy grimacing slightly.

"Eh... well...," he stuttered, "they are... gone."

"And gone where?" Kirby asked skeptically, noticing that the Cappy seemed nervous all of a sudden.

"They are..." the shepherd paused, obviously only just now thinking of what to say. "They are on another field!"

After that he hurriedly excused himself and left Kirby behind.

"Huh..."

And he thought he had met strange people before. Turned out people on this planet were even stranger than the people he encountered on a regular basis at home.

Who appeared out of nowhere, started a random conversation and then just left?

* * *

"Seriously..." Joe sighed, giving up.

Everyone in this village refused to talk about what was going on, although Joe and Kirby already knew there was some monster. The reports left no doubts about that at least, but still no one was willing to tell him anything.

Their first mission and nothing was going right.

He looked around, noticing how most people kept sending wary looks in his direction.

Yeah, this was really not going too well.

"Meh..."

He was seriously wasting his time; no one was going to tell him anything and Kirby hadn't reappeared either. He'd have to search for him then.

Joe went around a corner, lost in thought, and promptly crashed into someone coming from the other side.

"Ouch," he complained and took a look at whom he had crashed into.

It was another Cappy, one wearing a blue police uniform and cap, and a belt with what Joe assumed was a gun. He had a beard that Joe was sure hid a frown.

"Who are you? Attacking the police is prosecutable!"

Uh oh... It was just his luck to run into someone like this guy of all people. Joe would like nothing more than to snap back, but knew it would be a serious blunder on his part.

"Ah... um... sorry. Didn't see you there," he said, hoping to resolve the situation like that. Unfortunately the Cappy was in no mood to listen to him, it seemed.

"You are also that guy who's been asking suspicious questions, aren't you?" the Cappy demanded, but didn't even wait for an answer. "You are arrested for attacking an officer and harassing the population!"

"Eh? Wait a moment!" Joe backed off, the Cappy in turn taking a few steps in his direction. "I didn't attack you! I just didn't see you come around the corner!"

"Denying the charges now? That won't help you, it'll only worsen your punishment!"

Joe didn't have too many options now. He could run away, bad idea for sure. He could fight the guy, even worse idea. Or he could play along for now.

That certainly wasn't a good idea either, but what other choices did he have? And what was the worst that could happen anyway?

A few minutes later Joe regretted those thoughts. The Cappy had arrested him and he found himself securely behind bars. To make matters worse, he wasn't even alone.

"Hey, what did ya do?" his new inmate asked, curious why he was no longer alone.

"Nothing," was the deadpan answer he received. When Joe had hoped he'd be left alone now, he had been sadly mistaken, though.

"Really? I didn't do anything either!"

Joe sighed in frustration. That would be even more annoying than he had thought. He hoped Kirby was having some luck at least.

* * *

Kirby did _not_ have much more luck than Joe up to this point, although he at least hadn't been arrested.

Other than that he hadn't made much progress, certainly because there was no one to ask any questions. The scenery didn't change in the least no matter how long he went in one direction, and he seriously wondered how he had ended up very much lost.

There was a silver lining, though.

Randomly changing direction had yielded some good results. Strange how he had missed the castle on a hill before, but he wouldn't complain about it.

New destination set, Kirby went on his way to the castle he had spotted.

"Wonder who lives there," he muttered under his breath and unsurprisingly didn't get a response this time.

It took him several minutes to reach the castle, and when he finally did, he was slightly impressed.

It looked old, but Kirby could tell that it wasn't in a bad state at all. Compared to all the houses in the village it was gigantic. He had seen bigger buildings in his life, though.

Noticing the guards, who were eying him somewhat suspiciously, Kirby approached them with a smile.

"Hi. Can you take me to... eh, the king maybe?" It was as much a question if there was a king as it was a question to see him.

The two Waddle Dees guarding the gate blinked at Kirby, looked at each other and blinked at Kirby again, perplexed at this new arrival's behavior. Kirby continued to smile at them for a few more seconds, until he realized they weren't going to answer.

"Uh..." Staring at them for a few more moments didn't help any, but even if they didn't answer, someone else appeared.

"What's going on here?" the newest arrival, this time a Waddle Doo, asked and both Waddle Dees turned in his direction.

"Ah... I see. No, I don't think his Majesty knows him."

Watching with growing confusion Kirby couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Was that guy some kinda mind reader? Because the Waddle Dees didn't say a word.

"Ah well..." Suddenly turning in Kirby's direction the next question was aimed at him. "What do you want from his Majesty?"

"I... ah... wanna talk to him about what's going on here?" Kirby tried and it was more a question than a statement. The Waddle Doo's expression, however, brightened.

"Oh, in that case please follow me!"

Finding himself following the Waddle Doo in front of him, Kirby soon found himself lost. He couldn't tell where he was anymore, and without his guide's help he would never find the way to the king, nor the way back.

"So you're here to help?"

Kirby nearly crashed into a wall after looking after some Waddle Dees in the hallways, not expecting a question. Catching himself before it actually came to that, Kirby answered.

"Uh... yeah. I'm Kirby by the way."

"I'm Waddle Doo," his guide answered suspiciously cheerful, and before Kirby was able to say anything to that rather... strange name, they had already reached the throne room. "We're here. His Majesty is through those doors."

Never questioning why Waddle Doo didn't follow, Kirby entered the next room.

* * *

"... we could be really good friends! You and me, together in this cell until everyone else also realizes we're innocent!"

"Get away from me or I'll introduce you to my fist and then the ground after I punched you."

His new "friend" wasn't fazed. He didn't even seem to realize that Joe was talking to him, and was much too close for comfort and no plans to back off any time soon.

Unfortunately for Joe, though, the Cappy he had learned was called Chief Borun had paid attention to what he had said.

"That's another charge. Threatening a respectable citizen of Cappy Town. It's not looking good for you, lad."

"What the heck!" Joe shouted back, but had to realize that all his protests were ignored. "Why is _he_-" he indicated the guy almost clinging to him right now- "a respectable citizen all of a sudden? He's in jail, he's had to do something wrong!"

"See? That's why you're in jail," was the calm reply. "You did something wrong and now have to pay for that. It's good how you realize people in jail did something wrong. A fault confessed is half redressed."

Borun smiled and nodded to himself.

"What? You've gotta be kidding me! When did I ever confess anything?" Joe asked heatedly, becoming more than a little frustrated by now. "I still didn't do anything, so let me outta here!"

"You will stay in this cell. You can't just go around and harass people and threaten them," Borun said.

"Did you even listen to me?" questioned Joe, still angry at the whole situation. "I just asked that woman a simple question and I even apologized for walking into you. I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Shouting isn't going to help you, you know?"

And Joe realized that it was just no use. He'd have to think of something to get away without causing permanent harm, and until then he would bear it.

"Great! Now we'll stay together!"

"Gah!"

_Try_ to bear it.

* * *

**A/N:** Many things to tell in a first chapter. Feel free to skip if you don't care.  
Important things first: New story, no chapters left, not much time. Expect slow updates for this story.

I don't really care for disclaimer and stuff normally, but because I have read tons of stories and I'm forced to use places and characters (some OC's) I might have taken the names or characters from somewhere. I don't think there are names that haven't been used before. Sorry if I happen to use something you think you recognize. If that's the case feel free to tell me.

Edited: Kirby and Joe get the spotlight for the opening, but seeing as this arc is called I. Introduction (I'm so creative) it should be obvious that there are more characters to follow. The other two spots for main characters will be filled after chapter 5 or 6.

Rated T for now. For about every reason there is to rate something T. Seeing as this story has six arcs in total and I have a pretty good idea what happens when, I predict this rating won't survive. Arc VI. at the latest gets an M rating, but probably already long before that. You have been warned.

**TL;DR**: Likely slow updates, character names might accidently be taken from somewhere, main characters will be added at a later date, rated T going to be M.


	2. I 2 The Joys of Being Lost

**I. Introduction**

**2. The Joys of Being Lost**

Kirby noticed the details in the room he had just entered almost immediately – or rather the lack thereof. The walls were bare of any real decorations, although Kirby had expected the opposite. People, who felt important, had always insisted on ostentation in his experience, and ultimately come across as mere show-offs.

Dreamland's king didn't seem to care much for such things. The red carpet he was walking on was the only thing giving some color to the otherwise dull room and its cold stone walls.

Even the throne was not decorated and was for all intents and purposes just a big chair.

Kirby approached the person he assumed to be the king slowly, noting that he was aware that he was no longer alone in the throne room, but made no effort to look like he cared all that much for that fact.

He only spoke when Kirby had closed most of the distance between them.

"What is it you want from me?" he asked, bored but not quite unfriendly yet.

Not one to let himself be discouraged by that rather lackluster attitude, Kirby started off with a bright smile.

"Hi, I am Kirby."

It was polite to start with an introduction. It became clear that there was not going to be an introduction from the as of yet unnamed king, though. In fact, he seemed rather bewildered by the display. Didn't matter.

"I'm here with a friend because there is a rumor. Of a monster attacking."

"Rumors are just that, rumors," the king said after thinking for a moment. He didn't seem quite convinced of his own words.

The king was a snail with lavender skin and green shell and eyes. His mustache and goatee made him appear somewhat older than he probably was, and the crown on his head seemed like it was too heavy for him.

All in all he wasn't how Kirby had imagined a king to look like.

Now obviously he was also lying or he really had no idea what was going on.

Kirby didn't doubt there was some monster here. The GSA guys were pretty well informed when it came to monsters, and even more so when those were Nightmare's. While that was not a certainty, it was more likely than not. Most monsters you came across were demon beasts, Nightmare's servants.

This particular report about a monster sighting came directly from the Special Forces. _Those_ guys were even better informed than the normal GSA.

They were also above taking an easy mission such as this one.

Monster hunting wasn't their forte, although Kirby didn't doubt for even a second that they were qualified to kill whatever monster crossed their path and get away without as much as a scratch.

They would not be seen doing it either, if their reputation had some truth to it.

From what Kirby knew, it did.

"So I guess you don't know anything about it then?" Kirby asked just to make sure.

"...No," the king replied after hesitating slightly, but Kirby didn't pressure him. He just continued smiling.

"That's okay. I just had to ask someone. Sooner or later it will appear. Well, thank you. I'll go then and leave you to do... whatever you were doing."

"Ah..."

Kirby had already turned, but turned back around when the king made a sound like he wanted to say something else. He gave his best encouraging smile, but the king chose not to say anything after all.

"... Never mind."

Shrugging Kirby went his way, leaving from the throne room and into the hallway. That conversation had been short and not really informative, but that was all right.

Closing the door behind him again, Kirby noticed something important immediately. Waddle Doo was notably absent.

Uh-oh.

* * *

Joe wondered how long he had already been in the hell that Cappy Town called a prison cell. He hardly dared to look at the ticking clock at the wall, fearing for his sanity.

No, he had been here for a _long_ time already. He needed to know how long exactly it had been.

The chief had left some time ago, probably looking for other unfortunate souls to imprison in this place. With how easy he had found several dumb and illogical reasons to imprison Joe, he wondered why there weren't more people with them in the cell.

Not that he complained about that, one lunatic was more than enough.

Said lunatic had introduced himself as Doron (Joe had certainly not asked him for a name, or anything else for that matter), and had also told Joe just about everything he didn't even want to know.

Last year's weather on Doron's birthday? Sunny.

Whose sheep was officially declared as the fluffiest in Dreamland? The mayor's.

Who was rumored to have a crush on the local fortune teller? Some guy called Samo.

These and other absurd facts (or maybe not facts, Joe had no idea) were told without any prompting from Joe whatsoever. The other guy just rambled on and on, and Joe had tried his best to ignore his new "best friend forever".

Joe had no idea when he had even been told of _that_ development.

It was completely in vain as well, because it was impossible to _not_ listen.

There was nothing else to distract him from Doron, and it was kind of hard to ignore his excitement.

Now he knew some incredibly useless stuff, was still involuntarily listening to some more of it (Doron had reached his seventh birthday in the epic tale of his life), and was still internally debating how good or bad it was to know how long he had been here.

"... I ate cookies after that, and then-"

Screw this.

Risking a glance at the clock, Joe wished he hadn't.

"Really," he said flatly. Doron ignored it.

"... and when my mom found out-"

Joe stared at the clock, willing it to move faster. Or maybe slower, because that would mean it was broken.

It did neither.

"How the heck was that only half an hour?!"

* * *

"Uh..."

Kirby was not lost. Not at all. He knew the way perfectly. He just had to go left now and then-

Then he would have perfect view at the outer castle walls from the fifth floor window he was currently in front of. Perfect, _just_ as he had planned.

And because he was _exactly_ where he wanted to be, he was totally not looking around in despair.

Not. At. All.

Why wouldn't he want to be in a fifth floor corridor in some castle on Pop Star?

"..."

Not even Mekkai had been this hard to navigate. Joe and Kirby had only been to Mekkai once, and although Kirby had to admit he had lost orientation in the city after ten minutes (if asked, Joe's response would be a different one) with Joe he hadn't lost his way even once.

He had actually remembered the way in the GSA headquarters and, one rather unpleasant encounter aside, they hadn't run into any trouble.

Then again their encounter with the infamous chief of the Special Forces had been more than enough. As far as Kirby knew that guy was hardly a social person and did not normally wander the hallways. Meeting him on their way had been bad luck and nothing else, and Kirby dearly hoped not to meet him any time soon again.

Joe shared the sentiment as far as he knew, because that guy was _scary_.

So while he had not lost his way on the much bigger Mekkai, Pop Star, Dreamland and this castle in particular were too much to handle. The architecture just didn't make any sense!

Sighing Kirby continued. Standing around didn't help any after all.

The next Waddle Dee he came across was just as unhelpful as the last one he had asked for directions. They were helpful enough what with pointing him the way, but none of them were able to tell him for some reason, and none of them actually showed him the way either.

They just kept patrolling their given hallways, like small robots programmed to do the same thing over and over again.

The thought made Kirby smile for a moment. All of them looked the same to him, so maybe they were actually all the same robot model?

Of course the thought was ridiculous, but Kirby caught himself looking for clues of the Waddle Dees being machines. He found none, unsurprisingly.

Going in the direction the last Waddle Dee had pointed and then going down whenever possible, Kirby couldn't help but feel he was getting farther and farther away from his destination.

Sure enough reaching the basement had not been his goal.

"... How did I end up here?"

Looking at the cold walls with a miserable expression, he wondered why this always happened to him. Couldn't he just not get lost when he was alone for once? Certainly that wasn't too much to ask.

Turning back around, walking up the stairs again, Kirby was surprised to walk into something or rather someone.

"Ah!" the girl Kirby had walked into exclaimed in surprise.

Kirby grabbed her hand quickly before she fell down, but almost lost his own balance. Swaying slightly for a moment Kirby let go of the girl's hand and she took a step back.

"Who are you?" she asked, obviously surprised and more than a little wary of a stranger.

Having caught his balance again, Kirby looked up at her.

She had blonde hair and green eyes that looked suspiciously at him. She wore a green shirt and blue jacket, which contrasted somewhat to her orange feet, but Kirby knew it was best not to point it out.

"Well?" she demanded now, looking down at him because she was quite a bit taller than him.

Trying with a smile again, Kirby replied seconds too late for the girl to be easily placated.

"I'm Kirby."

"Kirby..." She frowned for a moment, trying to place the name. "I've never heard that name before. What do you want here?"

"Well..." Kirby trailed off, slightly embarrassed because he was lost. Again. "I talked to the king and didn't find the way back out?"

Whatever insidious plot she had expected, this wasn't it.

"... Pardon?" she asked completely deadpan.

Yeah... she had not expected that at all.

"It's not my fault this castle is so damn confusing!" Kirby justified his trip down to the basement. He wasn't sulking!

"Well..." The girl sighed, maybe a tad theatrical. "In that case it would be the nice thing to escort you to the exit, wouldn't it?"

For the first time she smiled, although Kirby had the feeling she was just trying really hard not to laugh at his situation.

Kirby smiled back.

* * *

Joe was not smiling, nor was he in any sense of the word happy.

This sucked, this was unfair and it didn't make any sense.

What had he done to piss off whatever deity or whatever was responsible to deserve this torture?

"On the first day of summer then-"

In desperation he had covered his ears, but it was absolutely no use. Doron had perfected the art of talking exactly as loud as he needed to be audible to Joe.

He kept going on and on and on. And on. And then some.

"-and suddenly sheep started disappearing."

If it was something useful at least!

But no, it was all about the interesting things this guy had done in his life. The nonexistent interesting things!

"No one knows what is going on, and everyone is really afraid now," Doron finished his sentence, and Joe breathed a sigh of relief. That sounded almost like he was done now, which meant that last part was about how everyone felt right now.

… wait.

"Doron..." The thief (yes, Joe had learned the reason for his imprisonment as well) looked at Joe with a smile. "Everyone is afraid now? Why?"

Joe focused all his attention on his inmate, much to his delight. After hours of trying to ignore him (Joe was reasonably sure at least more than an hour had passed by now) he had finally said something important, and Joe would be damned if he didn't listen now.

"Well, it all started some days after Kawasaki had-"

Yeah, okay. Listening to whatever this Kawasaki guy had done was probably completely unimportant. Joe found himself listening, regardless.

Turned out it had been unimportant and just another of Doron's stories.

"Can you _please_ answer my question?" he forced out through clenched teeth, trying hard not to do something rash.

Doron hummed thoughtfully in response, and Joe was about ready to hit him in the face – repeatedly.

"But I am," he replied in apparent confusion after a few seconds, and before Joe was able to say anything, he continued. "Then the shepherd – I don't actually remember his name – came running into the village, white as a sheet, stammering about all the sheep. Gone."

Joe was too surprised with the sudden information to comment on that lame rhyme.

"The mayor seemed really upset with the shepherd and said he was lying, but he and the chief went to take a look."

The thief seemed lost in thought for a moment, then he continued in a conspiratorial whisper.

"When they returned they didn't look so good. The mayor stuttered a lot and told everyone there were only bones left of his sheep. Said there was some sort of monster and that no one was to leave the village at night because it would eat everyone. Someone did and they said there was a _huge_ monster as well."

That explained why no one talked to him. The people were either afraid to send him to his death, or that he would provoke the monster into attacking their village.

Joe had absentmindedly been staring at the clock, but turned back around now.

"Thanks-"

Only to find Doron with a creepy look only inches from his face.

"Scary, ain't it?"

"WHAA-!"


End file.
